Postcards from Rome - No Monuments

 

The real Rome blog to come later...think of this as the antipasti.

  Hope you enjoy some of these.  

 

 

 

 



Enjoying pasta...part of the human condition.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Context Tour of Popes and Power with Jose.

Caravaggio's St Matthew paintings.

Bernie with his new best friend.

 

Small kitchen, great food and cheap....Tonino's near Piazza Navona

Volkswagen car show with Italian style parking lot picnic.

 

Swiss Guards....

Foro Italico Mussolini monument.

 

Sexy Italian Carabeneri

 

 

Campo Di Fiori....vegetable heaven

Ali Baba a very very funny guy...see him on YOUTUBE.

 

chocolate gelato tastes better when its all over your face! 

 

Ciao from Roma with Donna's new best friends. 

A Fairy Tale City

It took some days to warm up to Ferrara, our next stop.  Largely because it was either raining, had just rained or was about to rain. And it was cold.  Ferrara like Parma is not on the American tourist agenda.  We wanted to spend more time in Emilia Romagna and wanted a Goldilocks city.  Not too big nor too small, with lots to see in the town and surrounds.  Ferrara met this need. 

Castello Estense

   Not only did it have a REAL 15^th century castle…built by an Este Duke (Lucrezia Borgia married into the Este family)… the castle still has a moat filled with water! The ceilings are filled with Renaissance frescos of sports and pagents, sadly a spider web of gauze patches covered them because of cracks caused by the big earthquake (5.9) last year. We took the English tour led by a lovely (they appear to all be lovely) young Italian woman so passionate about sharing her love of the City and its history.  Included in the tour was a visit to the dungeons which were used even during World War II.

We arrived in Ferrara train midafternoon Friday to THRONGS of young people leaving town for the week-end. Instantly, we recalled that Ferrara is a major university town. Our lovely apartment rental was in the shadow of the magnificent duomo and around the corner from the Castle .  The piazza in front of the Duomo is the place to hang out with friends and a drink.  It was nice to be surrounded by youthful enthusiasm and energy. 

Lampedusa memorial and nightly gathering in Duomo Piazza

Also around the corner was a scary statue of Savonarola (the bonfire of the vanities cleric and self anointed prophet).  He is a Ferrara home boy, but Donna was still surprised to see the larger than life statue in a place of honor.

 

Bicycles rule this town.  They are everywhere with old and young riders…some even dressed in spiked heels. The riders are proficient in one armed steering, so they can talk on their phones and carry their open umbrellas. 

Ferrara had a few other things going for it….1) Giorgio Bassani, a Farranese, set his famous book “The Garden of Finzi Contini” in Ferrara, 2) many museums, 3) a 9KM 15^th century wall that surrounds the city which is also a bike/walk trail, 4)  it was a quick train trip to the 5^th century mosaics of Ravenna and 5) it was accessible to many nature sights in the Po Valley.  As to #3 & 5, Plan B had to take over with the weather.

We were able to view many of the Bassani’s street/building references…such as the synagogue, the jewish school and the library.  In 1938, the Jews of Ferrara were subject to racial laws and prohibited from accessing the library.  That same library today houses all of Bissani’s books and writings.    On our last day in Ferrara which was beautiful…we walked along the wall  and stopped by the Jewish cemetery where Bassani & family are all buried.

 
 

We did make a trip to Commachio a coastal town on the Po which hypes itself as a little Venice (a stretch).    Commachio is famous for its canals, a delightful 5 arched 17th century bridge, eel farms and a famous Roman trading  boat.  The latter was discovered in the 1980s and it along with its contents were salvaged. The artefacts are  displayed in a museum.    In addition to checking out the eel museum, which expanded our knowledge  of eel  production titanically (just ask if you want to know more)…we enjoyed a lunch of eel and other seafood at a nice restaurant on a canal.

This blog would not be complete unless we teased your taste buds and commented on the Ferranese bread…now that we are safely out of its clutches.  After weeks of enjoying Tuscan bread, we discovered that in Ferrara, against all logic, they prefer to eat their own bread.  See picture.  It was fun to pull apart while you are waiting for your antipasto, but we had the most fun deciding how to describe its taste and texture.  Taste  was easy.  NONE.  Texture, we agreed on Ossified Pillsbury Doughboy.   

 

2 Little Pigs In Parma

Our latest stop was Parma in Emilia-Romagna…the land of the famous Parma ham or Prosciutto, called crudo.  The ham is not cooked but dry- cured in a many-month hanging process.  We were pleased to find out that the special piggies who sacrifice themselves to our gastronomy are treated well and are often fed the famous Parmesan/parmignana cheese we also devour. This gives the Parma crudo its nutty flavor.  Anyway, we have been eating it like crazy for the last four days just in case they decide to control this substance in the future.   The picture below is from a restaurant called the Osteria I Tre Porcellini (the 3 little pigs)!

A variety of parma crudos and some fried bread!!!

 

 




Donna with Gelato Flowers

At another fine restaurant we had a plate of heavenly Parmesan cheeses aged 2 years served with honey and a balsamic reduction, followed by a plate of home-made tagliatelle and fresh porcini mushrooms.  We also discovered K2 which is a unique gelato place.  We understood nuns run the place which is near the Duomo, but not sure if that is true.  What is true is that they make flowers out of the ice cream cones.  Talking about culinary art, the gelato is the best we have had in Italy this trip. 

 

 

Know Your Saints

In spite of dire warnings from our GPS, Donna decided to take the Passe della Croce Arcana route to Pietrasanta our 3^rd destination.    This turned out to be quite an adventure; Bernie was convinced we were on the wrong road since the dirt and rock were not much improved since the Longobards built it in 9^th century.   At the top of the Pass, stunning views, there is a ski area in the winter (near Abetone) and great hiking in the summer.

Near the Top of the Pass with shrubs showing fall foliage
 

Pietrasanta is between the sea and the  incredibly steep mountains of the  Apuan Alps, next to Carrara and Saravezza where Michaelangelo got his marble.  Marble businesses and death defying quarries are everywhere.  There is so much marble here we even found a bridge made of it.



Fishing Pier at Forte dei Marme near Pietrasanta

 

Marble quarry near Seravezza/Carrara

 Talk about death defying… lets talk about the double black diamond path to our little cottage here.  Good news was that there was a lift for the luggage.  See picture attached.  So every day we go up and down this trail, about 50 Meters with an elevation gain of seems-like 200 meters.  And you don’t have to pay extra for this. 

The bad news was we forgot 2 deal breakers …no internet and no laundry in this rental.  Donna was in withdrawal until we could get to an internet point and check emails.  Today she stood out in the rain in front of the closed internet point typing into her IPHONE a Fibonacci sequence user ID and Password.  All this for only a few emails…come on guys, say hello or something.

On our first rainy day we spent a few hours at Sant’Anna.  A WWII resistance and memorial museum is located here at the site of the German massacre of about 500 Italian civilians mostly women and children.  The  museum in Parco Nazionale della Pace,  high above PietraSanta and  the sea on top of a super switched back road (are there any other kind in Italy?). It is a moving memorial to a horrific war crime.  In particular, the story of the resistance fighters in the area is poignantly shown in pictures and narrative and newspaper articles.  We used our Italian dictionary app to mostly translate words like “capture”, “torture”, “kill” and “victims”.  The English language interpretation of the narrative is in the works, but we understood that the Germans used whatever means to hold Versili which is the  area of Italy where we are staying. This was at great cost to the Italian partisans and civilians during 1943 and 1944.  The link to the web site is www.santannadistazzema.org.

Earlier that same rainy day, we spent at the Museo San Matteo in Pisa.  With lots of English narrative to provide context, we got a wonderful sense of Pisan religious art from the 12^th through the 15^th century.  Donna delights in looking at a tryptic and trying to name the saints…Bernie gets into it too.  We are batting 1000 on John the Baptist and St Catherine, so long as she has her wheel.  But even the curators can screw up….see photo of this tryptic of Madonna and Saints and see the manual correction in the credits.  How could you not know it was St Lorenzo, 2^nd from Left?

 

 

 

 

 Perhaps we are losing our minds from too much wine, but we delight in looking at the face of Madonnas in the Annuniciations.  (this is when the Angel tells Mary she is going to have the Baby Jesus).  The expressions run the gamut of “are you kidding me”, “I am going to be famous one day”, “OMG”, and “ wow this is such an honor, I hope I can live up to this”.  In Pisa, we saw a room full of powerful/bigger than life wooden sculptures of the annuniciation duo.  Let us know what you think Mary was thinking in the following picture. 

 

Just so you know we aren’t missing anything…we loved our day in Pisa at the Leaning Tower, Duomo and Baptistry.  We also hiked the Cinque Terre but due to a landslide between 2 of the Lands  it was only the Tre Terre.

Also spent a day in the Garfagnana…aka the Alpuani Alpes.    We were blessed with beautiful weather for these sights.  This is an area of Italy we had never been to and we were not disappointed with its natural splendors.

And then there was the food....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peak Bagging in Italy

Because of our curiosity about the 10^th Mountain division in World War II, our 2^nd stop was Vidiciatia, Italy.  Vidiciatica is in the valley below Riva Ridge and Mt Belevedere, 45 miles north of Florence.   For those who don’t know the story of the 10^th: the executive summary.  The 10^th trained for 3 years in the US, largely near Aspen.  In 1945, the 10^th were finally given an opportunity to show their stuff when no other forces could breach the German Gothic/Winter Line near here.  It is an exciting story that started with a technical climb up Riva Ridge which the German’s thought the Allied incapable of climbing.   BIG SURPRISE.  After taking Riva they went on to take Mt Belvedere.  The Italians love the 10^th mountain for obvious reasons.  For the rest of the story check out the internet or watch the video. 

Riva Ridge from Mt Belevedere

On the drive to Vidiciata, we made a rewarding stop in Pistoia and were delighted with Pisano’s pulpit and the famous 16 cent. sculpted silver altar in the Duomo which has exquisite new and old testament panels.  We were directed off the beaten path to a charming little Bistro where we split seafood spaghetti and a salad of pecorino and nuts.    Our waitress was the charming Frederika who studied for years in Boston, and spoke English like an American.  Sadly, she was bitter about the lack of opportunity in Italy, which she thought was worse in Italy than US.

Donna & Frederika
 

 

 

 Spaghetti In Pistoia

 

 

Pistoia was the location of one of the time trials in the World Championship (Mondo Ciclismo)  bike race.  The town was all in a buzz….sound like Aspen?  There was a charming exhibition of antique bicycles that were used by working men….the bikes were tricked out with everything from knife sharpeners to musical instruments to chestnut cookers. 

                                                    Chestnut bicycle cooker.
 Returning to the topic of peak bagging.  We were thrilled to get more history from Bruno our inn host who was a special forces Alpini  and a 10^th mountain aficionado.  He was quite helpful telling us the best routes to reach our peaks.  Mt Belevedere was the easiest peak and the 10^th mtn monument at the top was a familiar icon for us. Bruno was concerned that we could not make it up the strenuous but non-technical climb to Riva Ridge, but we assured him we are strong hikers.  Turns out it was like doing  Arbaney Kittle 2 times with no flat places, 1500 feet in about 2 miles.   A good climb, but if we had guns on our back and went the technical route, whew!  What a challenge, even worse if Germans were shooting at you!
                                                                                                                               

10th Mountain Monument   

 

                                                               Bernie in a Bunker

By the way, the English are everywhere here doing walking tours all over this area, which has many great hikes.  They are a delightful bunch and lots of fun.  Our inn sounds like Downton Abbey.  Oh I hear the dressing gong…gotta go. 

 

Waterfalls and more hiking!!!

 

PS…we wish to thank Jane Kendall and Bill Shaffer for their recommendations of Vidiciatico.

 

"Fauntastico"

“Faun”tastico

On our 2^nd day in Italy, we went to Parco Fauntistico, a nature preserve where red deer and bats roam.  (possibly Wolves)  Donna made her first Italian pun at dinner tonight calling the park “fauntastico” .  On the same day she asked the very confused waiter for the check, but actually asked for a side dish.  (conto not contorno).  Actually Donna is feeling like she is making progress.

Back to Day 1:  On the flight from Frankfurt to Rome, we passed over Isola Giula and thought/imagined we could make out the Costa Concordia just after it was hauled upright.  Great story, but we were a few days late. On our drive up the Tuscan coast we were able to stay awake, only to get lost in Orbetello, a geographically charming place that is on a sandbar between the mainland and the island of Monte Argentario.  We popped by Porto Ercole to see where Caravaggio died; the event was underwhelmingly commemorated by a wall plaque on a Renaissance church.  Great Primo Pranzo (lunch) in Orbetello..  No menu, just recommendations from the owner. We had risotto with porcini and chicory as the side.  Short stroll in the Maremma parco on the coast with gorgeous umbrella pine trees.  Saw many foxes…the Italian species are not as stealthy as they are in Colorado.

Foxy Bernie Umbrella Pines and his Fiat Cube Car



 



Maremma Fox

1^st night in Arcidosso, a classic Tuscan hilltown in the valley of Monte Amiata, the tallest mountain/extinct volcano in Southern Tuscany.  Our inn requires a lot of uphill climbs which helped us to work off the great dinner at “Rosso Bastardo” (a nick name for the Chestnuts grown in abundance here). The Montecuccuo Sangiovese wines, super local, grown in volcanic soil are inexpensive and flavorful.

Day 2….Per usual, we had lots of confusion getting our Italian phone working, which needed a new battery and SIM card.  Made our way to charming St Fiora to see some famous  16^th century Della Robbia glazed terracotta relief sculptures at a small church and then the  Peschiaria, a trout farm and pool. Miraculously we were able to arrive at the Pro Loco (tourist office) before it closed for siesta.  Timing your arrival in a new town when the tourist office is open is one of many challenges of our type of travel.   We made fast friends with Grazie….who spoke perfect Queen’s English…(duh, she was born in England of Italian parents).  Lunch was normal aka INCREDIBLE.  First taste of Pici, the Tuscan thick spaghetti, in YEARS.
 

Afternoon spent at Parco Fauntistico.  Lovely vistas, grand chestnut trees and some wildlife sightings…red deer and giant rabbits called lepre.  Enough to rev up our appetites for dinner.  Added treat of dinner was Bernie and an Austrian at the adjacent table having a great conversation in Italian.   

We realized at the end of Day 2 that we had lost our Italian phone.

Day 3 back to St Fiora to look for our phone.  Not there but we were able to chat again with Grazie.  That was nice.  Day of sightseeing capped by a hike up Monte Amiata (a ski area too). 

 There is a wonderful cross on top of mountain that was one of 20 crosses commissioned by the then Pope and built in late 19^th and early 20^th century on the highest 20 peaks in Italy.  This is the first one we have seen.  It was unnecessarily bombed by Germans in WWII and rebuilt.  (Just to be fair,  Americans probably unnecessarily bombed other places).     

I think we will have some fresh wild mushrooms....

Bernie & I go to Italy almost every year since we moved to Colorado in 1997.  Bernie thinks the Italian food is not as good in China as it is in Italy.  I just feel at home there.  We both love the food, wine, art, landscape, architecture, people, and history.  Bernie also loves the language and has been studying it for years.  We love to share our knowledge of Italian travel and we thought that a blog would be a nice way to document our trip and share to those of you who have clicked on the Icon that was emailed to you by Blogspot. 

We decided to go to Italy for an entire month this year.  We haven’t been there this long since we became the parents of 2 longhaired dachshunds.  We are thrilled to finally find a 2^nd family for them while we're travelling.

We've been planning this trip for almost a year.   We do not go on commercial tours.  We plan and devise these trips on our own:  when we get off the train in Parma we know where we are, what we are doing and what we are going to eat and drink!  We do that much research.   Italy can be a challenge for the uninitiated (or the initiated).  And we always have stories to tell.     Sometimes they are about us…but not always….e.g. there was the New Jersey group of a certain age that got off a tour bus in Erice, Sicily and they didn’t know what town they were in or why they were there, a World Heritage Site.  The tour bus guide had fled the bus in frustration and left them to their own devices. 

Grauer Italy Trip - Rome, Maremma, Monte Amiata, Vidiciatico, Pietrasanta, Parma, Ferrara, Rome

This trip starts at the Rome airport (see blue line on map), a drive up the Tuscan coast to the Maremma area for some sightseeing (jet lag will be an issue) and a walk in a coastal nature preserve and "First Lunch" (Primo Pranzo) near where Carravagio died. Then several days in the southern Tuscany in the area of Monte Amiata, an extinct volcano.  Here we will hike and explore and dine and drink. Wild mushrooms are in season and will be on all the Tuscan menus, can you say "luscious fresh porcinis?"

Next three days will take us further north in Tuscany to Vidiciatico, where in WWII the  American 10^th Mountain Division ascended Riva Ridge and broke the German Winter Line.  We hope to see the WWII memorials, hike, see the country side. 

Then a week on the Tuscan Coast in Pietrasanta which is near Cararra where Michaelangelo quarried his white marble.  Best of all is that the Alpuani Alps will be at our backs (if we are looking at the coast).  We will be touring this area by car and foot and include a walk along the Cinque Terre path.  Again wild mushrooms, but lots of seafood too! 

We leave our car in Parma and will be in Emilia Romagna and even better food (is that possible?) for the next 10 days…staying in Parma and Ferrara…with many side trips for art, architecture, history, and nature.

We end our trip in Rome.   6 days of looking at Michaelangelo and Bernini and the best art in the Western World. Oh and of course the "Last Supper" (Ultima Cena) (the painting is in Milan, but the meal will be in Rome)  We will let you know when things are posted and picture worthy.  Hope you want to follow us.  Best, Donna & Bernie